Ready?

Friday, 30 December 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review –
This is the episode IVXZYIIXZ of the Star Wars series. Well…sorry to burst your
bubble but actually…this is not a sequel or prequel but rather a stand-alone
Star Wars story so the makers can generate more money milking from the fans.
Meh

...that nasty Imperial's weapon of mass destruction called Death Star

Just not to get the audience confused,
Rogue One is set just before Princess Leia decides to go against the Empire (or
Imperial) with her ‘bandits’ of rebels. It tells the story of how ‘ordinary’
citizens decide to take action against a cruel regime. Scientist Galen Erso
(Mads Mikkelsen) ‘plants’ a defect while developing the ‘Death Star’ and hides
the information in a holographic message for his daughter, Jyn Erso (Felicity
Jones) to figure it out. A deflected Imperial cargo pilot, Bodhi Rook (Riz
Ahmed) carries the message and decided to help rebels to obtain the schematics
for Death Star at a beach planet, Scarif highly protected by the Imperial
force. Jyn gathers a small squad to try and steal the important data against
the Rebel leader’s advice. An epic battle (what else did you expect?) ensues
between the Imperial army and Rebels. Can Jyn and her comrades bring a New
Hope?

Family portrait?

What can be said about any Star Wars
movies? One knows they only offer the best from the mixed cast that includes
veteran like Forest Whitaker, James Earl Jones (despite lending his iconic voice
as Darth Vader), we also get a mixture of Latin and Asian characters giving
their finest performance in a role of a lifetime. The special effects are once
again simply out of this world or galaxy for that matter. The renowned music
score by John Williams is elevated further with its own Rogue twist. The
storyline however is not as strong as the original Star Wars but still up to
par. It’s enough to satisfy the fans and perhaps attracting new force into the
franchise.

Look out for K-2SO

After the release of Star Wars - The Force Awakens last year and more planned sequels, prequels and everything in between, Rogue
One managed to stand on its own and maybe leave in impact. Star Wars after all
is a story about intergalactic adventure that might last longer than our own
existence.

Just as I was writing this review...news of Carrie Fisher (who played Princess Leia) came on and my heart broke a little.

Thank you for being a beacon of Hope in your films and real life Carrie, may you Rest in Peace.

Mahavir Singh Phogat with his Champions (the younger and older version)

Dangal Review – My favourite Khan is
back with another winner!

Hera meri pyarrrrrr!!! Nyummy nyum nyum

Mahavir Singh Phogat’s (Aamir Khan)
dream of winning the first gold medal in wrestling for his country does not
transpire into a reality so he vows to train his son into a champion. That hope
also turns into a dust when he becomes a father of four (4) daughters instead.
It’s not until his village people complain that his two elder daughters, Geetha
and Babita beating up boys for bullying them, Mahavir realize their potential
and starts training them personally when the local trainers refuse to teach the
girls the proper technic. It proves not to be an easy task as their family is
faced with numerous obstacles from people around them. Despite the odds, Geetha
starts winning one match after another until she becomes the National Champion.
Pretty soon she had to leave her father’s wing and join the National Sports
Academy to train with professional coach. This doesn’t sit well with Mahavir at
the beginning as Geetha’s performance start to slump when she competes
internationally while Babita on the other hand start winning her ‘fights’ and
soon joins her elder sister at the same academy. As the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth
Games approach, Mahavir tries to push Geetha to create history. With mounting
ressure and caught between following her coach’s training or her father’s
guidance can Geetha finally deliver the elusive Gold Medal for India?

Don't mess with the Phogat's bhaiya!!!

Aamir Khan…what can I blush about this
man except that he is one heck of a talented human being? From acting to
directing to dancing and now a wrestling under his belt. He will only
head to more greatness with every project he is involved and I look forward to
every single one of his triumphs. “Meh tum pyar karthi hu Aamir”. Hehehe…with
that said…being a sports fan, this movie is a gold medal winner from the word
get-go. With brilliant acting, storyline (based of true story), cinematography
(those wrestling scene might get you on the floor trying to wrest someone I
tell you!) catchy music…this film will surely be cherished as a classic.

Office Christmas Party Review - A
Christmas party unlike any other you’ll have a major hangover till the next
Christmas!

Party People in the house...I mean office!!!

Software company, Zenotech run by
generous but slight dim Boss, Clay Vanstone (T.J. Miller) is facing some
financial problem due to the slow economy. Clay plans the annual office
Christmas party to keep his staff happy during the down time. He also have to
face with his competitive step-sister, Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston) who in
bent on shutting his branch down. Along with his other employee, Josh (Jason
Bateman) and Tracy (Olivia Munn), they try one last time to land a contract
with a big client by inviting the ‘buyer’ to attend their party to ‘see’ the
company. Unfortunately all hell breaks loose when things get out of hands. The office
is ruin, the deal goes south but can Clay save his staffs from getting fired or
will he be out of a job himself soon?

In full swing!!!

With rather impressive cast namely
Aniston, Bateman, Munn, McKinnon, we get to see variety of characters. Jen
Aniston stands out as the mean step-sister while hoping Kate would light up the
party but instead, the Director just made her to be annoying as the HR Manager.
The rest of the cast were ok…yeah…just ok. The storyline were all over the
place and no thanks to our censorship board, the best (read : kinky, dirty)
part of the movie was snipped away so some scenes end up being confusing
instead of funny. Idiots! This is by no mean an award winning film but just a
fun watch to laugh out loud.

Wait...what do you mean I'm not the Santa?

If you are going to organise any party,
kindly take note not to turn it into something like this movie. You have been
warned, enjoy but try not to harm yourself in the process. Happy partying
people!

Assassin's Creed Review – Another video
game turned into a full fledge film.

Any last words before you 'die' Callum ?

Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) is a
convicted felon on a death row. He is however ‘resurrected’ after a secretive
organization connected to the 14th Century Knights Templar
trace his DNA back to an Assassin known as Aguilar. The project called Animus
is supervised by brilliant scientist called Sofia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard)
without realizing that her father, Alan Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) has another
ulterior motive. Callum gets to relive the ventures of Aguilar and acquires
extraordinary wisdom along the line. Pretty soon he figures out Alan’s
intention and vows to protect the Creed’s honour just like his ancestor.

Think we will get a sequel?I hope not...

After donning Magneto’s helmet and
controlling metal in the X-Men series, Fassbender now changes his weapon into
amazing fighting skills. His acting talent also shines in another dual role
both as Callum and Aguilar. Sadly the same could not be said about Marion as
her role was rather dull while Jeremy Irons was also another big name wasted in
this film. The storyline similarly felt rather draggy at some point and there
were too many plot holes here and there. By the end, I was just glad I didn’t
get any headache watching brave stuntman’s performing several runs and jumps
from one place to another, just like the movie that kept jumping from one
timeline to another.

Aguilar in action!!!

Perhaps not being a fan of the video
game didn’t help attract my interest towards this movie, I just watched it
because I won the preview pass so I’m sorry Assassins, your Creed doesn’t
appeal to me that much. Meh.

Saroo
Brierley (Dev Patel) spends his early years in Indian squatters ‘working’
alongside his brother collecting scraps to make a living along with his mother
who works as a labourer and their little sister. One day Saroo gets separated
from his brother and ends up in another part of the country and after numerous
escapes and surviving using his skills, he finally ends up at an orphanage and
eventually gets adopted by an Australian couple in Tasmania. Years passed by
with Saroo finally longing to reunite with his real family. Using the help of
latest technology, Saroo managed to trace back his ‘home ground’ and makes his
journey back to India. Will he be able to get back ‘home’ after all these
years?

Will Saroo ever get to reunite with his brother Guddu?

Be
prepared to be touched by this film with solid performance by Dev and also
Nicole Kidman. The bond between these two are simply amazing, it’s no wonder
they are nominated for the upcoming award ceremony (namely the Golden Globes
and Oscar soon I reckon). Credit also goes to the ‘young’ Saroo who captured my
heart his innocent yet raw acting talent. The storyline was well adapted from
the book capturing the heartbreak and anguish Saroo had to go thru trying to
get back his roots. A simple but strong message of mother’s love is also
portrayed in this well-crafted film.

Adult Lion and his Lioness (sorry I can't help it! Ehehehe)

Honestly
I was holding my tears back while watching this wonderful movie. If you think
you are ‘lost’ try giving this movie a view and perhaps you might get some
clarity for the situation you are in.

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

So let's combine four of my favourite things coming
together in another long post. (Sorry, I like to story panjang2, no obligation
to read but you know you want to right?)

Oh the four combo mentioned above is per below: -

1. attend #SingaporeFormula1GrandPrix for the 2nd time;

2. watch Kylie Minogue perform live!!!;

3. Celebrating Lorita’s (BB) and my birthday for the first time together a day apart;

4. Winning contest and end up attending all the SG F1 GP concerts!

It's no secret that I love movies and music so I will
always keep a look out if there is any interesting contest so I could be part
of the special event connected to both this activities. For as long as I could
remember, I've loved Kylie Minogue, not a huge fan but reasonable enough with
hope that I will get to watch her perform live one day.

My dream finally came true when Music God heard my
prayers as it was announced that she is one of the performer for Singapore F1
Grand Prix for 2016. Back in 2013, I attended few shows during that year's
grand prix concert, namely saw Rihanna wreck her performance, caught the tail
end of Bieber's show after spending the whole day at Universal Studios
Singapore. You can read about that babble here.

Anyway, back to 2016 show, I noticed that Singaporeans
or PR’s can get their hands on a much lower priced tickets catered for the
individual shows only. Meaning you can just watch which artist you fancy
instead of having to buy the whole F1 package. I got hold of my best friend,
David and thankfully he managed to reserve two tickets for me and BB who is
also a fan of Kylie. What made the deal much sweeter? BB's birthday is on the
16th while mine is on the 17th and whole SG F1 GP fever was between 16th until
18th September 2016. Talk about perfect timing ey?

We took the tickets from David when we went to
Singapore earlier for Weezer's concert.

My husband from across the Causeway! Say hi to David!Thanks for getting us the tickets Darling.

The SG F1 GP trip was my 3rd trip to
Lion City in 2016. We set out timer with excitement while planning if we should
spend our whole weekend in Singapore. If not for the currency drop, we also
wanted to watch other performing acts, Imagine Dragons (Although I saw them
also in Singapore in 2015), along with Pentatonix (saw them in KL) and the legendary
band Queen featuring Adam Lambert (saw Lambert before as solo act in
KL...hey...I told I'm a big fan of music rite!) and Bastille.

After much contemplation, we had forgo the rest of the
shows, what with bad currency rate along with the Zika virus scare. Bluek!
Fortunately, the awesome people of Universal Music Malaysia (UMM) organized a
contest offering a trip to Singapore to attend the concerts on 17th and 18th
September! Say wherttttttt!!!....Dude!!! I'm so gonna join this one I told
myself.

The mechanics was to buy any of UMM's artist album, be
it CD or online and submit an entry giving reason why they should pick you to
watch your favourite band/singer. We went on a hunting mode to get Imagine
Dragons’ album only to turn away from music store that didn't seem to have it.
Wanted to purchase it online but there's nothing like 'holding' a physical cd
right? Our last effort paid off when we managed to get it and I submitted my
entry on the last day of the competition!

My preciousssssssss

With Singapore reaching peak tourist visits during the
F1 season, we had hard time trying to find a place to stay but BB managed to
get a place nearby Chinatown, a bit out of the city but janji selamat lar. Then
to decide if we should fly, take a train and board a bus down to Singapore.
Thankfully, 16th September (Friday) is Malaysia Day so we didn't have to apply
for leave from our respectively office.

The idea of flying to Singapore was out of the window
as soon as we saw the ticket prices. Train was also not possible since we were
afraid that we might get exhausted after the long journey. We opt to take bus
on Friday morning and arrive around noon to get settled in. After resting and
later hit the circuit to watch Kylie Minogue perform live!!!

The thought of me winning UMM contest had faded away
by then until I received call from their representative informing me that I was
one of the winner! BB and I were having our dinner at home when I received the
call. At first I didn't want to pick up until she scolded me for ignoring it.
The fon rang once again and I answered. Got the news and couldn't stop smiling.
Told her and she couldn't stop smiling either. We then laughed our butts off,
don't ask me why but we were both so happy at that time. She started
screaming......"Maigard.....Queen!.....Imagine
Dragons!.....Bastille!.....Halsey!" The reality then hit me as well. Who would
have thought, entry at the 11th hour with not much hope that rewarded me
handsomely.

Few days later, I was emailed with details of the
prize and arrangements for the trip.

“Hello KANMANI A/P ADIMOOLOM,

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have won an expenses paid trip for two (2) to
catch Bastille on 17th September 2016, and Imagine
Dragons & Halsey on 18th September 2016,
LIVE in Singapore!

Awwwwwyisssss!!! It's been a while since I received such email and I quickly
responded by informing that I will attend Kylie's show a day earlier and
appealed to them to change my arrival flight to a day earlier. Guess what? The
lovely UMM people obliged to my request. The airline they booked?... Malindo!
Yesh!!! The hotel that picked? Grand Park Orchard Hotel at Orchard Road! Weeeeeehoooooooooooo!!!
The two birthday monkeys is sure gonna have a time of their life!!! Thank you
so much Universal Music Malaysia!!!

Great Hotel!!!

The day finally arrived and we made our way to KLIA.
It's funny that just two years ago how BB and I noticed each at a boarding hall
(at KLIA2) while waiting to board our flight to watch Sara Bareilles live in
Singapore and this time, going to Singapore together! Flying out on her
birthday was an extra bonus! Somebody was really smiling from to ear to ear on
that day and I was more than happy I could cheer her up.

Selamat Hari Jadi Malaysia and BB!!!

We arrived in Singapore and went to makan first at
Lavender stop. The yummy chicken rice was just what we needed to feed our
appetite. Then another MRT ride to Chinatown to rest until show time. The place
was quite dodgy, like really really dodgy so we decided to take a nap first.
Got knocked off till about 5 pm and then we got ourselves ready.

Nyummy yum yum

The roads were closed here and there so we had to walk
extra mile to get to the concert venue. We were also hungry but couldn't find
any reasonable makan place. We passed by Starbucks and had no choice but to buy
some lite meals just fill in the hunger. We could hear the roaring of the F1
engines circling the Marina Bay circuit. We then made our way to Padang and just
in time for Kylie to come on stage!

We are here for you Kylie!!!

KYLIE!!! KYLIE!!! KYLIE!!! After watching Madonna
perform earlier this year (Yes I'm a Rebel Heart!), I didn't think it could get
any better for my music memories, but God had another plan and I'm so grateful
to experience this with my loved one on our special day.

We sang, danced and
enjoyed our hearts out as Kylie put up an amazing show singing her evergreen
hits and latest chart toppers. I 'Step Bank in Time' to my high school band
camp days when I used to listen to her songs non-stop!

'em Locomotion,
Celebration, Confide in Me and a lot more got me thinking "I Should Be So
Lucky' to be jumping just few metres away from her. I 'Can't Get You Outta My
Head' anytime soon Kylie.

Thank you for making my teenage wish come true SG F1
GP! It was surreal to finally watch her perform live right in front of my eyes.
It was everything I'd imagine and much more than I'd hoped for.

Teenage crush right in front of my eyes.

We left Padang all smiley and happy after the stroke
of midnight with me ushering in my 38 years of existing in this planet! The
authority had 'opened' up the track and we managed to snap some pictures on the
road with some excellent photobombs from other crazy attendees. Hehehe...I mean
how often do one get a chance to lay on the streets of Singapore ey? Extra
special being my birthday as well.

Kaboom da photobooms!!!

We reached Chinatown safe and sound dozed off until it
was time to check out from a shady place into a three stars hotel in ‘Jalan
Dusun’! It was time to enjoy my reward for joining for fun and not giving up!
We went around Chinatown first to grab our lunch and then head to Orchard Road
to wait for Miss Minni of UMM to arrive with another set of winner to check us
into the awesome hotel. I couldn't thank my lucky stars enough for the amazing
prize.

We checked in and boy!!! Talk about a perfect birthday
gift for myself! The hotel is so gempak giler siot! First thing first...bath
tub! Checked!!! Weeehoooooo!!! After getting comfy, we once again took a short
nap and rested (Read : my usual pruning session!) our body as we are about to
party with Bastille and Queen featuring Adam Lambert.

This monkey managed to surprise the birthday monkey with a lovely card. Thank you sayau.

Ladies and gentlemen...your lucky winners!

The journey to Padang was
covered by UMM and once we took picture with our passes, we were set free
inside the venue to first rock with Bastille.

Are you ready for this BB?

When in Singapore, I'm bound to bump into my friends! Good seeing you again after a long time Trisha!

At first BB and I only wanted to
watch them perform for a while and then head for the F1 qualifying round but
the British lads managed to keep us glued with their energetic performance. In
no time we were both jumping and coming on at each other with weird but funny
British accent. I blame the heat. It was so humid we were sweating non-stop but
we enjoyed ourselves nevertheless.

Hello there good looking!

We eventually made our way to catch the glimpse of the
speeding F1 cars and later returned to a packed Padang.

Vroom vroommmmmmmm!!!

#BBManiJalai

The crowd swelled so
much until we couldn't get the spot we wanted to stand. We had to retrieve to
the back of the crowd. It proved to be a better option as although we couldn't
'see' Adam and the rest of the Queen members up close, we got be safe and not
get scorched under the heat. Adam was a perfect fit for the band belting out
their hit one after another effortlessly. Modern technology also made it
possible for the band to 'perform' with the original singer, the legendary
Freddy Mercury. As we stood at the back of the crowd, we saw 'veteran' concert
goers just enjoying the music without the any drugs like kids these days. They
were just getting high on the music with some help from beers but nothing
illegal. It was an overwhelming feeling to watch such an evergreen band perform
on my birthday. Although it's not for my birthday per se but boy, it was
totally unbelievable! Queen was their absolute best even after all these
years!

Look at that crowd!

We didn't get to see Minni after the show ended
because of the huge crowd so we made our own way back to the hotel and informed
her once we were safe in our room. We were still relishing our senses after
such awesome performances. We were not sure what time we actually
kiok'ed!

Mani was there!

18th September 2016, a year older but
wiser...meh...maybe still not yet! Hehehe... BB told me that she hasn't been
to Marina Bay Sands (MBS) although she's been to Singapore many times so after
quick breakfast at the hotel, we made our way there.

Amma managed to squeeze into the trip as well.

We notified Minni that we
will meet her to collect the final day show passes after we'd finished our
tourist activity. The sweet girl agreed. Thank you so much for being so
accommodating Minni.

Say hi to the lovely Minni!

Despite the Zika scare, the crowd was packing all over
Singapore, Marina Bay Sands was no exception either with MRT packed to the brim
to transport people from one place to another. We went around MBS, had our
lunch at Rasapura Food Court. I never miss to get my grub there if I visit MBS.
It price is reasonable and taste is so yummy.

Grub time!

After snapping some pictures for
memories, we were off this time to enjoy newbie Halsey and American rockers
Imagine Dragons to officially bring SG F1 GP to a close.

Muka kepenatan bak hang!

We met up with Minni and together made our way to
Padang. After taking some pictures, we lepaked at Padang while enjoy Halsey's
power packed performance.

Later on we walked to our seats to see Nico, Lewis, Daniel and the
rest battle for the title but left earlier so we could get a better standing
position as close to the stage to rock out with Imagine Dragons.

Gentlemen please start your engines!

Thankfully
most of the spectators were still at their seats watching the race so we
managed to find a spot just near the right side of the huge stage. There were
two big screens screening the race live so we sat down for a while to layan the
race which was won by Nico Rosberg! Yeay!!!

This year's joint winners! Ehehehe

As soon as the prize giving ceremony ended, all
attention was focused to the stage. By this time, we were squeezed in sea of people.
Some expat kids were really testing our patience with their rowdy behaviours.
As we were already there earlier, we refused to give face or space for the
late-comers trying to make their way in front of the stage. Like kamon you
idiots, there aren't enough space so why don't you just watch the show from
where you are standing. Plus some of these idiots were tall so when they manage
to get in front of us. It blocked our view so that sorta pissed me even more.
At some point we wanted to leave our spot and move to the back but when we saw
on the screen that there not much space left even at the back. We decided to
just hold our ground and ignore these rascals.

Imagine no more! It's really Imagine Dragons on stage!!!

Pretty soon the lights were dimmed and Imagine Dragons
kicked off their performance. Every song was perfect. Everyone in the crammed
crowd enjoyed themselves including us despite getting bumped and knocked here and
there.

We just didn't heed the hassle while singing our hearts out to Demons,
Hopeless Opus, I Bet My Life, Roots, Shots, Radioactive and many more of their
hits.

Rock God Dan!!!

You can guess by the end of their set my voice has left me but it was
worth every moment watching them perform live for the 2nd time. As the crowd
started to disperse, I had to lie down on the grass for a while as my whole
body was sore from jumping too much or perhaps it's just my age catching up to
me.

Amaaaa....appaaaaa....amaasamiiiiii

After gaining my balance, we walked to the MRT station
and literally caught the last train leaving the station. We stopped by 7 eleven
to get some snacks for supper and head back to the hotel for one last sleep. I
managed to fit in another short pruning session to relief my leg from the
aching. BB was well into her slumber land sleep snoring away and soon I joined
her.

The next day, while everyone was having their Monday
blues, we had our own version as this great birthday gift was coming to an end.
We got ready to check out after having our breakfast and went for a short
stroll for find some desert. Sharp on time, our transfer van to Changi arrived
and on the way, we chatted with Minni and thanked her for all her assistance
throughout this trip. Checked in our luggage and waited to board our flight
back to KL.

Will cherish this memories forever!!!

What a fairy tale way to celebrate our first birthday
together after getting to know each other in a way I never imagined. My dream
was to attend Sara Bareilles concert while her wish was to find someone to
attend concerts with. As fate would have it, we found each other on our way to
watch our favourite singer perform. Fast forward two years later we've been to
so many shows together enjoying each other's company. Thank you for coming into
my life BB. I'm grateful to have with me and can't wait to attend more
awesome shows while making more amazing memories.

Do follow our past and future adventures thru #BBManiJalai :)

As for Universal Music
Malaysia, thank you so much for picking my last minute entry and rewarding me
with one of the best birthday gift ever.

Let's repeat this next year Grand Prix season again shall we BB?

Now should I blog about my other adventures that took
place this year? I’m still finding words to describe how I felt seeing Madonna
perform during her #RebetHeartTour when BB and I officially went on our first
trip together.

Her Madge-sty!!!

Then there’s #TheRojakGirls 48 hours escapade to Medan.

#TheRojakGirls

48 hours in Medan, Indonesia with these krezi nuts!!!

Plus
another history repeating itself in a form of boarding the Mariner of Seas
cruise ship (with BB lar…who else?)

#ItsTheShipYo!!!

Just thinking about editing the picture
makes my ache so gimme some more time and I will try to bug you with another
long post okies.